Table 2. Cost estimates of tobacco product waste management and reduction in one country in each of the six WHO regions, 2021.
| Country | Smoking prevalencea, % | Estimated global tobacco product waste, % | Estimated costs of all product wasteb, US$ | Estimated tobacco product wastec, % | Estimated costs of tobacco product wasted, US$ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brazil | 12.80 | NA | 1 323 319 752.49 | 13.43 | 177 725 562 |
| China | 23.50 | NA | 9 299 458 020.90 | 24.66 | 2 292 981 931 |
| Germany | 22.00 | NA | 891 774 234.17 | 23.08 | 205 850 882 |
| India | 8.00 | NA | 8 000 741 085.82 | 8.39 | 671 576 259 |
| Jordan | 34.80 | NA | 137 045 667.78 | 36.51 | 50 040 275 |
| South Africa | 20.30 | NA | 482 288 285.88 | 21.30 | 102 725 410 |
| Global | 22.30 | 23.40e | NA | NA | NA |
NA: not applicable; US$: United States dollars; WHO: World Health Organization.
a Source: WHO global report on trends in prevalence of tobacco use 2000–2025.49
b Based on published literature and reports. For Brazil, China and India, we were not able to identify public sources of data on the costs of all product waste; therefore, for these countries, we imputed a cost of all product waste per capita based on an average of other middle-income countries (US$ 7.85 per capita).
c Based on the global average of data compiled annually as part of the Ocean Conservancy International Coastal Cleanup and calculated as the percentage of all product waste that is tobacco product waste and weighted by WHO estimates of smoking prevalence in each country, that is, we assumed that countries with higher rates of smoking would have higher proportions of tobacco product waste. The tobacco product waste percentage for country(i) was calculated as: weight(i) × mean global tobacco product waste percentage, where weight(i) = smoking prevalence(i)/mean global smoking prevalence.
d Based on multiplying all product waste cost by the tobacco product waste proportion, using unrounded significant digits. These figures do not include any costs associated with voluntary non-commercial waste pickers.
e The numerator and denominator for the percentage are 964 521 collected waste items and 4 122 225 collected waste items, respectively.